I enjoyed making this cake. The chocolate hazelnut shortbread pastry worked like a dream, and tasted heavenly. The caramel (I used the 'dry method') was easy to make, and set nicely during baking (I cooked it for 25 minutes instead of recommended 15, following advice from fellow bakers). My troubles only started when making the milk chocolate mousse. I managed to churn the first batch of whipping cream into butter (well, it was another hot summer day, so I wasn't really surprised). K. kindly - and very quickly - brought another packet of cream from a nearby store, and whipped it up into a nice thick cream himself, to which I added a cooled melted milk chocolate (I used Fazer Blue milk chocolate). The mousse was a bit thinner than I had imagined, and sure enough, refused to set even after hours in the fridge*. It tasted absolutely wonderful however - a subtle symphony of cinnamon, cocoa, caramel, chocolate - all very nice, and although sweet, then not cloyingly so. None of the 7 official cake tasters in our judging panel (me included) seemed to mind that instead of chocolate mousse the cake was covered with chocolate mousse sauce :)

Oh, and as you can see from the top photo, I managed to destroy my testing notes in the process, but I think the 'metric' recipe below is what I did:)

Whereas I wasn't so enthusiastic about the previous Daring Baker challenge,the Strawberry Mirror Cake, I would happily make this cake again without modifications. That's how delicious it was. And I'll make sure that the milk chocolate mousse behaves next time..

On the previous day:In a mixing bowl of a food processor, cream the butter.Add the confectioners’ sugar, the ground hazelnuts, and the cinnamon, and mix togetherAdd the egg, mixing constantlySift in the flour, the baking powder, and the cocoa powder, and mix well.Form a ball with the dough, cover in plastic wrap, and chill overnight.

On the day of the assembly:Preheat oven to 160 °C.Line a 26 cm loose-bottomed baking pan with the chocolate shortbread pastry and bake blind for 15 minutes.

In a saucepan, caramelize 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar using the dry method until it turns a golden caramel color. Incorporate the cream and then add butter. Mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.In a mixing bowl, beat the whole eggs with the extra egg yolk, then incorporate the flour.Pour this into the cream-caramel mixture and mix thoroughly.Spread it out in the tart shell and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Milk Chocolate Mousse

300 grams whipping cream250 grams milk chocolate

Prepare the milk chocolate mousse:Beat the whipping cream until stiff. Melt the milk chocolate in the microwave or in a bain-marie, and fold it gently into the whipped cream.Pour the chocolate mousse over the cooled caramel mixture, smoothing it with a spatula. Chill for one hour in the refrigerator.

To decorate

Melt ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar in a saucepan until it reaches an amber color. Pour it onto waxed paper laid out on a flat surface. Leave to cool. Break it into small fragments and stick them lightly into the top of the tart.

* In the interest of clarity I should probably reveal that the slice on the photo is cut from a frozen piece of cake :) And just for the sake of it - the cake froze beautifully, and tasted really nice. K. actually preferred the slightly defrozen frozen version..

I can see this daring baker thing is beginning to get really dangerous. I burn oven mitts and wooden spoons all the time, so I´d better not join up, or we´ll have a gutted kitchen soon.tart looks lovely.

Haha - I was wondering what that first photo was about, when I saw it on Flickr :) Great looking tart - your crust looks way better than mine. Mine really wasn't very crunchy at all. (And what on earth am I going to do with the two lumps of dough still in the freezer??)

All's well that ends well! :-) The first photo seemed not to bode well for the outcome, and then the last photo proved otherwise. It turned out beautifully...and I love your "architectural" caramel shard on the top of the tart. You Daring Bakers are a super cool group. :-)

Sorry you didn't have much luck with the mousse bit. My best friend took over whipping the cream while I melted the chocolate or otherwise I might have ended up with butter too. It turned out okay in the end. Your tart looks lovely.

Ooooh Pille, how lovely! Don't fancy myself as much of a baker so I doubt I'll be joining in the fun any time soon... but it's great seeing what others get up to! The hazelnut pastry sounds gorgeous, as does the cocolate-caramel combo. Well done, you daring baker you!

There have cetainly been recipes where I would have taken some satisfaction in their destruction (as your first photograph so beautifully illustrates). I'm glad that wasn't the case for you with this challenge. Lovely tart!